Trade minister Mari Elka Pangestu gave
a warm welcome to the newly launched sharia-based commodity trading
on Thursday, saying that such kinds of trading were needed to
accommodate the growing sharia-banking sector.

“At the moment sharia-based commodity
trading is much needed considering the fact that sharia banking is
also growing and will need shariah-based products of which they can
take advantage to manage liquidity,” Mari said, as quoted by
kompas.com.

The sharia-commodity trading was
established after cooperation by the National Syariah Board of the
Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) and the Jakarta Futures Exchange
(JFX), as well as support from Bank Indonesia and the Commodity
Futures Trading Supervisory Board.

Mari said that Indonesia must take
maximum advantage of the country’s sharia market to help it become
a more competitive international player.

“Indonesia, as the country with
potentially the biggest sharia market in the world and with one of
the world’s largest supply of commodities, must make use of its
superiority to raise competition in the global stage,” she said.